Angola Cables and Etix Everywhere Combine their Expertise to Offer a Low Latency Route Between the Americas and Africa

23rd November 2016

Angola Cables announced that it is has selected Etix Everywhere as its partner to build its critical infrastructure globally as part of an ambitious project to offer a lower latency route between the USA and Africa. The first element of the deal includes the construction of a landing station in Fortaleza (Brazil) and a data centre in Brazil for Angola Cables’ new South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) and Monet submarine cable networks, which will link the Americas and Africa.

According to Antonio Nunes, CEO of Angola Cables “This partnership will help us to quickly develop and operate state-of-the-art data centres as we continue to build ‘digital bridges’ to connect continents and the world.”

Closer access to two promising markets

Currently, when data travels from Africa to Latin America, it is transmitted through Europe. Angola Cables’ new submarine cables — Monet and SACS — will dramatically reduce the latency between the USA, Latin America and Africa.

The Monet submarine cable, a partnership between Angola Cables, Google, Antel and Algar Telecom, is scheduled to be ready for service mid-2017, linking Miami, Florida to Fortaleza and São Paulo, Brazil. This route will offer resilient connectivity and better latency between the two continents. Latin America is a booming market, and the internet penetration in this area is tremendous.

The SACS submarine cable, currently being deployed by Angola Cables, will be a direct connection between Latin America and Africa. Data will no longer have to pass through Europe, offering lower latency and better bandwidth quality between Africa and South America, and therefore the USA.

“With these projects, Angola Cables is transforming the face of African IT infrastructure,” explained Nunes. “Africa has been home to the world’s fastest-growing telecoms sector in the last five years. By offering better connectivity, Angola Cables is making way for a new era of economic growth.”

Ambitious and resilient architecture

The cable landing station and the data centre will be flagship infrastructure projects for Etix Everywhere. These projects will follow the company’s innovative architecture design model, encompassing three scalable power sources and world-class equipment. Each of them will offer 500 kVA of hosting capacity, with the ambition of reaching a PUE lower than 1.5 on a Tier III design.

“Considering the extreme weather conditions in Fortaleza, this PUE is a challenging goal,” declared Benoît Parisse, CTO of Etix Everywhere. “However, Etix Everywhere has extensive experience in terms of operating in extreme weather conditions. We are confident in our ability to reach this goal.”

The second challenge for Etix Everywhere is to deliver these projects in six months in a city known for being a difficult environment in terms of construction work. The cable landing station and the data centre will be delivered mid-2017, in time to be connected with the new submarine cables.

Innovation at the heart of this new partnership

“Angola Cables chose Etix Everywhere from among 11 competing companies due to its culture of innovation, exemplified by the latest software and hardware technologies developed by Etix Labs, Etix Everywhere’s R&D cluster,” observed Nunes.

“50% of our workforce is dedicated to creating smart data centres,” said Antoine Boniface, Managing Director of Etix Everywhere. “The mission of Etix Everywhere is to provide fully automated data centres, using automation and artificial intelligence to improve facility operations and create a better user experience.” The innovative character of Etix Everywhere does not stop at its core business, but also comprises other complex business offerings. Angola Cables also selected Etix Everywhere for its co-investment model; this partnership approach enables the telecom operator to set their ambitions serenely in the long term.